Bank of Singapore completes acquisition of Barclays' investment business

It acquired the business for a lower price.

OCBC's private banking unit Bank of Singapore has recently completed the acquisition of the wealth and investment management (WIM) businesses of Barclays in Singapore and Hong Kong for a lower price than what was on the deal signed in April.

To recall, BOS announced in the said month that it had bought Barclays' private bank business in a US$320 cash deal. However, it has announced that the resulting purchase price was only at US$227.5m, set at 1.75% of the assets under management transferred upon completion of the deal.

As of April this year, Barclays' WIM business has about US$17.5b AUMs, of which only US$13b was transferred to BOS.

The bank's CEO Bahren Shaari said the acquisition of a private bank with about 75% of the AUM transferred is but a big success to the group.

"A big part of the team is happy and ready to join the big Bank of Singapore family of close to 1,600 employees. The Barclays WIM Singapore and Hong Kong team have shared with us that their clients were more than convinced about the capabilities and competencies of Bank of Singapore," he said.

He furthered,"One key driver was the fact that we have organically grown the AUM from US$22 billion in 2010 to US$62 billion this year. The good growth is a testimony to the strengths of our products, people and brand, as well as the support from OCBC. This acquisition comes at an opportune time as the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) is expected to overtake Western Europe to be the second wealthiest region in 2017."

With the acquisition, Shaari noted that the group have the one of the largest teams of close to 400 experienced bankers to serve ultra-high net worth individuals and high net worth individuals in its core markets.